By the way, that's a French word!

I've been hanging out a lot with an American girl friend since I arrived in Scotland.
She doesn't mind so much my obvious arrogance, garlic smell and overall annoying joie de vivre. But even her patience has its limits and there's one thing I know unerves her, so I keep on doing it! ;-)

English, be it the traditional language you would find in Webster, or the one you hear on the street, is full of French words, and I just love pointing out that they are stealing our language and would try to insert as many French words in a conversation (oups... this one is a French word as well!) as I could, ending it with a... By the way, that's a French word!

I'm quite sure Native English wouldn't even realise it, just like the French wouldn't realise just how many English words we have in our oh so exceptionnal language. *rolls eyes*

I shall make my duty to report on this blog any word I come across!

I won't be listing all the obivous ones like rendez-vous and deja-vu, we all know these are French and English speakers use them as such, just like façade or even cuisine... all these are a bit cliché! ;-)

I will stick to the less obvious ones, at least from what I can see and hear.

I was pretty suprised to hear this friend was walking her dog on the promenade and that she has the dog on a leash as she doesn't want her German shepperd to wander off near the boulevard .

However I will make a difference between the words that have their origin in the French language (such as lounge) and the ones that have the exact same spelling in both languages.
The reason for this is that once the spelling has been modified, it seems to me that it stops being a French word and starts having a life of its own.

We all might get amazed at just how much modern French influences English speakers in their everyday life.